


Home

by Sun_Spark



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Afterlife, Enjoy!, Fluff, Happy Ending, I swear the ending is happy, Inspired by a YouTube video, Love, M/M, Major character death - Freeform, Mates, Soul Mates (Sorta), Spoilers: Season Five, Spoilers: Season Six, Theo/Liam, Thiam, i'm not sure, mate bond, maybe? - Freeform, sad beginning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-05
Updated: 2017-11-05
Packaged: 2019-01-29 16:01:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12634452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sun_Spark/pseuds/Sun_Spark
Summary: This is a story about Theo Raeken and Liam Dunbar after their many decades together. Instinct is a powerful thing, and Theo's is telling him that it's almost time to go.





	Home

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was inspired by this lovely video by Mika3xo, even though the video didn't have this plot line at all. This was kind of what I imagined the eventual end of the story in this video would have been.
> 
> Go watch it here if you'd like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4eYQkcP2Ak

It was an act of instinct, for Theo to wake up that morning and roll over to put his arms around his mate. Liam was still asleep, but it didn't take long for the warm arms around him to wake him. His breath snuffled as he rolled into his lover's chest, hands held up to his chin as he curled into a ball. Theo just tightened his arms and drew him close. Liam's blue eyes opened a minute later and he peeked up to see Theo's hazel ones. He smiled and stretched his head up to press his lips to the elder's.

It was an instinct deep down inside of him that told him his time was coming. 

It was a gut feeling that came from his inner animal, a sickening twist of his intestines, that told him the days on his clock had turned to hours. And it was funny, for all he had fought and clawed all his life to stay alive, running over anyone and anything that got in his way...those instincts were quiet today. Instead, the deepest, most primal parts of his animal self urged him to just reach out, to put his arms around his mate and make the wolf know he was loved...before he was alone.

They spent the morning wrapped up in one another. They showered together, taking time and gentle care to wash one another. They dressed together, and Theo carded his hands through Liam's wet hair. When Liam tried to cook breakfast, Theo was behind him, arms wrapped around his chest and chin nestled in his shoulder. Their legs intertwined while they ate, arms brushing together, and if Liam decided to feed Theo his pancakes at some point, no one was there to tease them about it. 

Sweet kisses were shared as they stood before the door, preparing to meet the pack, and hands were held during the drive. For all Theo wanted to watch his love, he kept his eyes on the road, contenting himself to brushing his thumbs along the other's hand. 

They spent the midday with the pack, issues discussed, problems solved, laughs shared, and bonds basked in. Every member of the pack, even those like Malia who still didn't like him, was talked with, everyone touched in some manner, contact strengthening their bonds ever so briefly. But he never moved away from Liam, but then the small wolf didn't seem to want to leave his side, some instinct of his own keeping him close.

The pack meal came and went, companionship palpable and laughter ringing through the air. Liam sat at his side, and at some point his arm wrapped around Theo's, fingers intertwined with his, head on the elder's shoulder. When the meal ended they joined the pack run. Laughter rang through the trees, howls sounded through the air, the sound of feet striking the ground as they moved together at inhuman speeds, the group acting as a whole. For hours they ran, taking joy in each other and nature around them, this setting easing and exciting their inner animals. At some point the run turned into a game of tag, so they played with the pack, eventually, Theo tackled his little wolf and they tumbled across the ground, laughing as they pawed at each other. As they settled, Liam pinned but not trapped under Theo, they laughed. Liam reached up to nip at the other's jaw and Theo growled playfully, so Liam barred his throat, a motion that's significance was not lost on the chimera. Once upon a time, the smaller wouldn't have even turned his back on him, much less given him one of the greatest shows of trust known to their kind. So he pressed his lips to the younger's throat, then to his lips.

Their afternoon was spent lazing at home, settled on their couch, legs twined together and arms wrapped around one another, Liam settled next to, yet nearly in the lap of, his mate. The normally restless energy that spawned from their primal halves was quiet, they were content merely to share their space. Theo pressed his lips to Liam's hair, holding him close. Liam raised his head and met the other's eyes, gentle love shining through those bright orbs, Theo's own eyes had no lack of love to be returned. Liam nosed along his jaw, then his throat while Theo rubbed his cheek against the younger's head, scenting each other. 

"Liam."

Liam closed his eyes tight, hiding his face against his lover's throat. Theo rubbed a hand up and down his back. 

"Liam." He called again, softly. "Look at me baby."

Dread twisted the wolf's stomach as he tilted his head back to look at the chimera. His eyes were met with a gentle smile as Theo raised the hand from his back to card through his hair. 

"Hey." He said softly. Liam didn't say anything and Theo just smiled again, ever so slightly. He looked down and swallowed around the lump in his throat before meeting the other's eyes again. "Liam...I....You feel it...Don't you?"

Liam closed his eyes against the sudden tears pooling behind his eyes. He ducked his chin, wanting to hide from this reality. He couldn't bring himself to speak, so he merely nodded his head once.

"Oh love," Theo drew him closer and hugged him, hand rubbing his hair and arm curled around his back. He rested his chin on the smaller's shoulder and closed his own eyes from tears. "It's gonna be okay."

Liam was an IED, and that didn't change just because he had grown to be more in control, to be happier in his life, no matter how much he loved Theo, he still had his explosions, and Theo had long ago learned to accept that. Now was one such time, as the wolf clung to him tighter, non-clawed nails digging into his shirt and back. "NO!" His voice was choked with tears. "It's not! It can't- I can't-!" He broke off in frustration. "It was never inevitable, Liam." 

Liam exploded again, pulling back from the other sharply, and Theo winced as fists struck his chest, hands gently cupping his love's back regardless. A less than human growl colored Liam's voice. "NO!! I won't accept that!" The wolf subsided, leaving a broken human boy. "I-I-can't! There has to be something - anything! You- I can't-"

He gave up with a harsh sob and buried his face into the other's shoulder. 

Theo rubbed his back in a small attempt at comfort. "We weren't getting any younger Li, we knew it had to happen eventually."

He could feel Liam shaking his head against his neck, body shaking with tears. Theo kept his voice soft. "We can't stop this, Liam." He pressed his lips to the boy's temple. "We just can't."

He held the wolf while he cried, offering him love and comfort while he let out all of his pain. Countless minutes passed as Liam slowly calmed. 

"I'm sorry." It was mumbled so quietly into his neck that Theo almost didn't hear it. He pressed a kiss to Liam's head. "It's ok, sweetheart, it's ok."

When Liam's tears were dried up and his breath even again, the two resettled themselves, Theo sitting back against the cushions with Liam lying across him, nestled in his arms. Liam settled his head on Theo's chest, just above his heart, looking up at him. Theo just held him. Silence reigned for the following minutes, their wolves reaching out through their bond to caress each other.

"Do you think there's an afterlife?" 

Theo wasn't expecting that question, but it made sense that Liam would ask. The younger had never asked him about his experience with death, about what had happened before Liam had resurrected him. He smiled gently, hiding his pain. "Yeah. Yeah, I know there is."

Liam nuzzled his jaw with his nose for a moment. He looked down at Theo's collarbone, not wanting to meet his eyes. "You think I'll see you there?"

Theo looked away, casting an unseeing gaze across the room. Flashes of a dark hospital and his sister played through his mind, the sounds and phantom pains of a heart being ripped through its ribcage echoing in the depths of his memory. He swallowed thickly, trying to keep his voice light. "Yeah, maybe you will." He hoped to god that Liam never saw that place, that he never experienced that...Hell.

Liam looked up at him. "You don't think it'll happen, do you?" He asked quietly. Theo looked down at his love, smiling sadly. "No. I don't guess it will... I think you'll be in a very different place than me."

Liam shut his eyes sadly, tears quietly running down his cheeks again. He knew what Theo was referring to, even though they had never talked about it, and he knew what Theo expected after his death. Gentle lips pressed against his forehead.

"Doesn't matter though....I'm not gonna be very far away." Liam gazed up at him, confusion and pain twisting through his eyes in a morbid dance. Theo smiled again. 

"Yeah, I'm going to die...Can't get away from that. But I'm not going to leave you...I'll always be with you, Liam." Liam snorted in tortured amusement, Theo chuckled. 

"Yeah, cliche, I know. But I mean it. I'm gonna be with you, Li, you won't see me, you won't hear me...But I'm gonna be there."

The younger wolf leaned closer to him. "I know." Liam pressed his lips to Theo's, sharing everything with that kiss. The contact and love it conveyed opening their bond to it's fullest. Emotions, thoughts, instincts, everything shared between them. 

They didn't say that they loved each other, that was one cliche they didn't need, but the bond shared by mates opened their hearts to one another, it allowed their very souls to brush against each other. They could feel each other's love, to an extent that words could never have conveyed.

They rested there together for hours, time passing slow and quick at the same time, or rather, it passed without their knowledge, it meant nothing to them just then. In the dark hours of the night, a three-quarters full moon shining through the forest, they met each other's eyes with an unnatural understanding of what was to come, and Theo, with a final smile, drew his love close one last time, before taking his last breath. 

Liam held onto him, not wanting to accept the stillness of his lover's heart, not wanting to acknowledge the fading of the now broken bond, the emptiness on the other end of it. He clung to the body of his mate, his own frame shaking in tears. He tried so hard to keep it in, but he and his wolf were in agony, he couldn't hold it forever. Tears streaming down his face, he threw his head back and let out a howling scream, man and wolf bleeding into each other in their pain.

That one scream lasted til his breath ran out. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew the pack would have heard him, that they would have felt their weaker bonds to Theo break, that they would be on their way to them...But he didn't care. He just curled into his mate one last time, clinging to him and crying until the pack would get there.

*C*C*C

 

It only took three months before Liam gave up. For two turns of the moon, it had been getting harder and harder to breath, to feel his heartbeat.

The pack had buried Theo, no matter how much of an outsider he had been, they sent him off with the full traditions Derek had taught them from the Hale pack. They honored him to the best of their ability, setting the pyre of wolfsbane alight over his grave under the full moon before burying his body. All of them together filled in the grave, setting the marker ahead of it, a simple stone carved with love and marked with the symbol of their pack, his name inscribed above the center, a space large enough for another name remaining blank. With the moon Luna shining down on them, Liam gazed down at that stone and raised his head, howling at the night. The rest of the pack joined him, a chilling howl that pierced into the afterlife to carry their dead packmate to his resting place, sending him off with love in their mourning. 

Two moons later, Liam was fading fast. His skin took on a muted pallor, he became thinner, no matter how much he ate, his energy dampered, and his anger faded. No matter how much he tried to hold on, the empty end of the bond haunted him with its cold state. The pack tried to bring him out of it, they didn't want to lose two packmates so quickly, but they knew it was inevitable. A wolf that had shared such a strong bond of pure love didn't often survive long without their mate, unless they had a child to care for, and Liam and Theo had never had a child.

As the days turned to weeks, Liam fought, but his breaths became harder to draw and his heart began to slow. He'd curl into their blankets and take in the fading scent of his lover hanging in the room, his will to live fading with it. 

When the third moon bloomed, petals shining bright through the night of Beacon Hills, the pack felt the bond to their youngest Beta break after all the decades it had rested in their hearts. The wolf's breath had stopped in the middle of the night, and they found him curled loosely on his side, one arm tucked into his chest, the other stretched out to the other side of the bed, the blankets loosely bunched under his legs. A smile rested on his lips.

They sent him off with the same ritual and ceremony they had given Theo, before settling him into the ground next to his mate, adding his name to the marker. 

Together, they howled into the night.

*C*C*C

 

Blue eyes opened to see the ceiling of a bedroom above them, his bedroom. A breeze curled around his body from the open french doors leading to the forest, transparent white curtains waving lightly in the air. Everything around him seemed to have soft edges, the air smelled of light flowers, like the lilies that had always sat on their counter, a reminder of a life wrongly lost and the peace they had fought so hard for. 

He felt warmth radiating from his left, so he turned his head. Hazel eyes shining with a smile met his own as they widened in surprise. He lost no time in throwing himself at the other, wrapping his arms around him tightly. 

"Theo!"

Theo chuckled and rolled with the momentum, pulling Liam onto his chest. "Hey there buddy."

They took a moment to scent each other, basking in the long lost scent of home. A laugh and a sob twined around each other as they left Liam's throat. "Theo!" 

Theo laughed fully. He rolled them over again so he was above the younger wolf. Liam finally raised his head from Theo's neck to look at him, and Theo lost no time in pressing their lips together. Several moments later they finally broke apart, a laugh bubbling out of Liam. 

"Theo." Theo kissed his neck. "I'm here baby, I'm here." He placed a small kiss to his mate's lips briefly, drawing back to gaze into his eyes. "Guess I was wrong. Guess we do get the afterlife together."

Liam's smile was blinding, and Theo answered it with a joyful laugh. Their lips met again, their bond opening up fully once again, pure love filling them as their souls intertwined once again. In the distance, they heard the howls of their pack, sending them off to their eternity together with the promise of joining them some day.


End file.
